JFK ASSASSINATION ARGUMENTS (PART 1190)

"We have an explanation there in the autopsy that probably a fragment came out of the front of the neck, [where does it say this???] but with the elevation the shot must have come from, and the angle, it seems quite apparent now, since we have the picture of where the bullet entered in the back, that the bullet entered below the shoulder blade to the right of the backbone, which is below the place where the picture shows the bullet came out in the neckband of the shirt in front, and the bullet, according to the autopsy didn't strike any bone at all, that particular bullet, and go through."

Note that before the coverup got going full-steam, they were admitting that the entry wound in the back was below the shoulder blade. .... Rankin is also admitting that they saw the autopsy photos, or at least two of them.

DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

It's possible that J. Lee Rankin was referring to the Boswell face sheet when he said: "Since we have the picture of where the bullet entered in the back."

If he's talking about the "dot" on the face sheet, then it's quite obvious why Rankin and the Commission were perplexed about the path of the bullet through JFK's body, because Boswell's dot on that face sheet, as we all now know, was located too low on the back of the diagram.

And in this quote....

"Which is below the place where the picture shows the bullet came out in the neckband of the shirt in front..."

...Rankin might very well be referring to a photo of the President's clothing.

In any event, it's obvious that Rankin & Company at that point were at a very early stage in their investigation (January '64), and they were merely trying to come to grips with the evidence.

Once the evidence and the precise wound locations were sorted out and verified (and once the reconstruction of the Single-Bullet Theory was done in Dealey Plaza on 5/24/64), it became painfully obvious that the SBT was true.

Any more meaningless nitpicks from the conspiracy crowd today?

BEN HOLMES SAID:

Oops!!! You COMPLETELY bypassed the major problem I pointed out, just to focus on a minor issue of whether he'd seen the photos or not. And since the face sheet shows no 'shoulder blades' at all - your theory doesn't even make sense.

DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Apparently Holmes thinks that Rankin couldn't POSSIBLY have been referring to the face sheet because the words "shoulder blades" (with an appropriate arrow pointing to them) weren't written in on Boswell's face sheet. (Hilarious!)

But, quite obviously, the general area of the upper back representing the shoulder blades ARE present and accounted for on the face sheet [pictured below] that Dr. J. Thornton Boswell used to mark the wounds of President Kennedy at Bethesda Naval Hospital on the night of November 22, 1963:

But maybe Ben Holmes thinks J. Lee Rankin was too stupid to know the area of the body where the "shoulder blades" of a human being are located. Holmes thinks Rankin needed a neon sign saying "Shoulder Blades Are Here" on Boswell's autopsy face sheet.

BEN HOLMES SAID:

Where does it say in the Autopsy Report what Rankin read in there?

And why the cowardice, Davy?

DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Well, it's quite obvious that Mr. Rankin was incorrect about several things in those January '64 Executive Session quotes....and this is certainly one of those mistakes:

"We have an explanation there in the autopsy that probably a fragment came out of the front of the neck."

The autopsy is plain as can be about the WHOLE MISSILE making its exit through the front of the neck. Why Rankin used the word "fragment" I have no idea. But he obviously should have said "bullet" instead of "fragment". (And yes, that's still a "nitpicky" thing for you conspiracy clowns to be isolating.)

What's the alternative? Do you think Rankin saw a completely DIFFERENT autopsy report than the one that appears in the Warren Report? Frankly, that's a stupid idea. Rankin merely chose the wrong word. He should have said "bullet" instead of "fragment". Big deal.

Of course, the OPPOSITE type of error occurred with respect to the Sibert/O'Neill FBI report -- the receipt should have said "fragments" instead of "missile". So it looks like a lot of people used those terms interchangeably -- "fragment/bullet/missile".

And chaff-happy Holmes knows darn well that Boswell's dot on the face sheet was too low. Boswell said it was. And Humes said it was. And the "14 cm." measurements written on the same face sheet PROVE that the dot was too low.

Naturally, Holmes will ignore the written-in measurements on the SAME face sheet. Ben likes the incorrect "dot" much better. Right, Ben?

Any more chaff on the table for today? Or haven't you punished Mr. Rankin enough for using the wrong word?

GARRY PUFFER SAID:

"Missile," as you may know, is singular, so at the very least, it should have read "missiles." But in fact "missile" does not mean "fragment," the FBI agents' "explanation" notwithstanding.

In other words, the most reasonable inference in this matter is that the FBI agents were told to lie about the missile. What J. Edgar wanted, J. Edgar got.

DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Was FBI Agent James Sibert still willing to lie at the request of the long-since-deceased J. Edgar Hoover in 2005 when Sibert said this?:

"No large bullet of any kind...was found."-- James W. Sibert; June 30, 2005 [via radio interview available here]

GARRY PUFFER SAID:

As far as I know, no one has ever conflated these terms [fragment/bullet/missile].

DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Well, as far as the receipt that is associated with the two bullet fragments turned over to FBI agents Sibert and O'Neill is concerned, I think it's fairly obvious that the word "missle" [sic] was written on that receipt in error. Because, as Jim Sibert explains in that 2005 interview above, he (Sibert) only saw and collected "fragments" of a bullet during the autopy. Not a complete "missile". And we know from the X-rays and the testimony of Dr. Humes that no whole bullet (or "missile") was found in JFK's body during the autopsy.

In addition, we can easily see that within the body of the Sibert/O'Neill report itself, there is no indication that any "missile" or whole "bullet" was recovered during the autopsy at all. In fact, on Page 4 of that report, it clearly says that the autopsy doctors "could find no bullets". Here's a more complete excerpt from the report:

"Inasmuch as no complete bullet of any size could be located in the brain area and likewise no bullet could be located in the back or any other area of the body as determined by total body X-Rays and inspection revealing there was no point of exit, the individuals performing the autopsy were at a loss to explain why they could find no bullets."-- From the Sibert/O'Neill FBI report

Plus, on that same page of their report (Page 4), Agents Sibert and O'Neill say that "two fragments of metal" were recovered from the President's head, and that those fragments were transported to the FBI laboratory by the FBI agents. But there is no reference in that FBI report to any whole "bullet" being recovered.

Here is a clarification of my previous remarks regarding J. Lee Rankin's use of the word "fragment" in the 1/27/64 WC Executive Session transcript:

It seems quite clear that Mr. Rankin definitely DOES think (incorrectly, of course) that a mere "fragment" of a bullet exited the front of President Kennedy's neck. He again incorrectly associated a "fragment" with the neck/throat wound on Page 194 of the January 27th Executive Session when he said:

"The bullet fragments are now...with the Atomic Energy Commission, who are trying to determine by a new method, a process that they have, of whether they can relate them to various guns and the different parts, the fragments, whether they are a part of one of the bullets that was broken and came out in part through the neck."

So it's fairly obvious that Rankin was still of the opinion, as of January 27th, that only a "fragment" had exited JFK's throat. But it's also just as obvious from looking at the entire discussion that is taking place in that January 27 Executive Session that the Warren Commission members really have no idea at that point in time what the facts truly are when it comes to many of the details concerning the bullets and JFK's wounds.

For example, the Commission still isn't sure at that time whether a bullet was found on KENNEDY'S stretcher at Parkland or on CONNALLY'S stretcher. Senator Russell said: "I thought it was found on the stretcher of the President" [Exec. Session; 1/27/64; Page 196].

So it's pretty clear that the Commission has just BEGUN its work and that the Commission members and staff don't really have a clue about many of the details that they will soon be learning about from the autopsy doctors and from the testimony of Darrell Tomlinson, etc.

WILLY WHITTEN SAID:

"Inasmuch as no complete bullet of any size could be located in the brain area and likewise no bullet could be located in the back or any other area of the body as determined by total body X-Rays and inspection revealing there was no point of exit, the individuals performing the autopsy were at a loss to explain why they could find no bullets." -- From the Sibert/O'Neill FBI report

So what, Von Pein?

DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

The "So What?" is that the conspiracy theorists who still (to this day) insist that a whole "MISSILE" was recovered by Sibert & O'Neill at JFK's autopsy are totally wrong --- and the actual Sibert/O'Neill report (ARRB MD 44) proves it.

WILLY WHITTEN SAID:

I don't know any "conspiracy theorists" who have ever argued that a "whole "MISSILE" was recovered by Sibert & O'Neill at JFK's autopsy".

I know I have never made such a claim. Who have you been reading?

DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

You must be kidding, Whitten.

At one time or another, nearly ALL conspiracy theorists have talked about the Sibert/O'Neill receipt that has the word "missle" [sic] included in it. Those CTers, ergo, love to imply that a whole bullet actually was recovered from JFK's body at the autopsy, despite the fact that the actual five-page Sibert/O'Neill report says the exact opposite--i.e., that no whole bullet was recovered during the autopsy at Bethesda.